Review: Hammer of the Gods (2013)

Cast: Charlie Bewley, Clive Standen, James Cosmo
Director: Farren Blackburn
Country: UK
Genre: Action
Official Trailer: Here

Editor’s Note: Hammer of the Gods is now out in limited release and is now available on VOD. For an additional perspective on Hammer of the Gods, please read Ronan’s review.

One of the things I can say about Farren Blackburn’s Hammer Of The Gods is that it tries to paint Vikings more as medieval knights with purpose rather than bumbling cartoon heroes. It tries. With this films promise of good actors and an interesting take on Viking mythos, I was ready for anything. But then these two lines happened right at the beginning of it:

Steinar: But they were farmers.
Hagen: They were farmers. But now they’re farming in hell.

It was all down hill from there.

Steinar (Charlie Bewley) is a Viking prince sent by his father, King Bagsecg (James Cosmo) on a quest to find his estranged brother Hakan (Elliot Cowan) so that he can take his rightful place on the throne. Along for the ride are Hagen (Clive Standen), Ulric (Francis Magee), Grim (Michael Jibson), and Jokul (Guy Flanagan). I know this well because of cheesy typeset introductions.

 Seemingly epic battles are fought with decorative purple lighting ala Xena: The Warrior Princess settings. While there is a bit of gore in those scenes it gets ridiculous with lingering shots on blood spatter and drawn out battle cries.

The camera lighting seems to be run through the Sutro filter on Instagram. Seemingly epic battles are fought with decorative purple lighting ala Xena: The Warrior Princess settings. While there is a bit of gore in those scenes it gets ridiculous with lingering shots on blood spatter and drawn out battle cries.

This isn’t to say that the acting is bad. In fact, it’s quite good. Charlie Bewley as Steinar has both the look and the chops to carry an action flick such as this and while the secondary characters aren’t crucial to the plot development, each actor did their part well. The movie suffers from a bad script though and lacks direction in certain parts. There are long scenes of them talking about legends and duties feel out of place in between fight scenes. I believe the director might have seen too many Lord Of The Ring parodies and just didn’t learn proper pacing as a result. This is Blackburn’s first film feature having only directed for television before and it shows.

In their Viking gear and music video camera work, the actors look more like a heavy metal band on a quest to find a lead singer.

The soundtrack is plucked from a live rock show. I can only stand one instance of an ensemble walking towards the camera in film; if you like that sort of thing: there are about three instances of that here. In their Viking gear and music video camera work, the actors look more like a heavy metal band on a quest to find a lead singer. And for some reason, as if the outrageous battle shots weren’t enough, the soundtrack swings from heavy metal to a jarring brostep attack.

Now there is a twist at the end and I will not give it away, but just so you know, this movie is about Vikings and it decides to throw that out at some point and turns into Apocalypse Now.

In my opinion, Hammer of the Gods would have fared better as a pilot for a Game of Thrones-like television show. At a mere 95 minutes, there is no saga here. It’s an exaggerated exercise on how not to make a film about Vikings.

• Bio
• Latest Posts

Jacqueline Valencia

Staff Film Critic

I'm a published writer, illustrator, and film critic. Cinema has been a passion of mine since my first viewing of Milius' Conan the Barbarian and my film tastes go from experimental to modern blockbuster.

Latest posts by Jacqueline Valencia (see all)

• TIFF’s Bitter/Sweet The Joyous Cinema of Jacques Demy Review: Bay of Angels (1963) - July 8, 2013
• Review: Hammer of the Gods (2013) - July 8, 2013
• Review: Redemption (2013) - July 2, 2013